"The War of the Roses" Coming to Broadway

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Poster for the 1989 film "The War of the Roses" showing Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.

One of the darkest views of a marriage is coming to Broadway from a producing couple who are enjoying a long, sunny marriage.

Producers Jay and Cindy Gutterman said Monday they plan to stage an adaptation of Warren Adler's book "The War of the Roses" during the 2015-2016 season. The story, about an exceptionally ugly divorce, was made into a dark comedy film in 1989 starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.

"It's ironic that Jay and I should be doing this because we've been married 37 wonderful years," Cindy Gutterman said. "It's been a really great relationship. I mean, we certainly never thought about divorce."

The play will be based on the book, which has notable differences from the film. For one thing, the book is narrated by dueling divorce attorneys, while the film had only one attorney — played by Danny DeVito, who also directed.

That makes the book far more of an indictment of the legal system, Jay Gutterman said. "Each of those attorneys are turning the tourniquet on their clients, looking, of course, for their various retainers. They're goading them to go that extra mile."

The Guttermans are three-time Tony Award-winning producers who do not shy away from intriguing and challenging material. Together with their producing partner Cathy Chernoff, they won a Tony this year for the Lyndon B. Johnson play "All the Way" and produced "Spring Awakening," ''Chinglish" and "Glengarry Glen Ross" with Liev Schreiber.

Cindy Gutterman said "The War of the Roses" is a cynical depiction of modern love that also satirizes conspicuous consumption. "It explores how far will two individuals go to destroy the other out of greed and the necessity to come out on top. How far will you go to pull your partner down?" she said.